E6. Myths, Monsters, & Scary Stress
TherapyBites
10/15/22
•35m
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FRESH from the Therapy Couch: MYTHS, MONSTERS, & SCARY STRESS
Psychotherapy Adventurers: Gamer Girl Heather, Super Bookwork Sarah, & Squirrel Girl Debbie
Go to https://TherapyBites.myshopify.com & grab some A.R.T. LAB MERCH, specially designed to help keep this episode’s message “top of mind” in your life! Don’t forget friends & family members who could use a mental boost too.
Show Summary: In this episode . . .
TherapyBites Podcast is the home of the A.R.T. LAB which investigates, explores, & educates all about the neuroscience of Accurate, Realistic Thoughts & Life Affirming Beliefs.
Today we tackle the CREEPY CORNERS of KILLER STRESS.
Have you been taught that STRESS is the enemy? STRESS is a KILLER?
On today’s episode we discuss some research that has rocked the world of psychological MYTH-conceptions about KILLER STRESS and, guess what? It’s not STRESS that’s the killer at all. The real killer is peering out of your eyeballs as you look into the mirror each morning and that is YOUR “perception”.
Imagine that someone with LOW levels of stress can actually die QUICKER of health-related issues than someone with HIGH levels of stress. The casual factor, as we’ll discuss, is actually how we each decide to catastrophize or DE-catastrophize stress.
Think of stress as a ‘weight’ exerting pressure on your life. If you have the resources to manage it then stress can actually be focusing; even stimulating. Stress can zero us in on an important goal or pursuit. However, demonizing stress tells your brain that you are at RISK and results in a cascade of ill-health inducing chemicals bathing your brain and body; predispositioning you for decline and disease.
The best strategy is COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING; deciding which thoughts to adapt and practice that best serve you, your life, and relationships. We also discuss some ancient philosophical wisdom useful even today.
Visit the TBAL Team at: https://therapybites.ac-page.com/team
CLICK BELOW FOR DAILY LIFE-AFFIRMING, PSYCHOLOGICALLY NUTRITIOUS INFO:
(We love YOUR questions & comments on our social pages)
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For the full show notes, visit https://therapybites.podbean.com/e/myths
FOR OUR READERS . . . GOBBLE UP THE WHOLE THING!!! (Transcript): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y6-aPpDvhQ_qBdpD-BEOhAzsnia8EKjBp4GjOPx8_TQ/edit?usp=sharing
Previous Episode
E5. Spirits, Unsafe Spaces, & Other Tales of Terror
October 15, 2022
•35m
FRESH from the Therapy Couch: SPIRITS, UNSAFE SPACES, & TALES of TERROR
Today’s Psychotherapy Adventurers: Gamer Girl Heather, Super Bookwork Sarah, & Squirrel Girl Debbie
Go to https://TherapyBites.myshopify.com & grab some A.R.T. LAB MERCH, specially designed to help keep this episode’s message “top of mind” in your life! Don’t forget friends & family members who could use a mental boost too.
Show Summary: In this episode . . .
The demon, gremlin, boogie-man (IUTy - Inaccurate, Unrealistic Thoughts) keeping MOST mental health difficulties FUELED up and ready to light a fire in YOUR life is AVOIDANCE.
Locus of Control - Thinking that externally UNCOMFORTABLE events, situations, circumstances are UNSAFE will program the brain to engage in a fight/flight/freeze response. This response will include the release of a monsoon of stress-related chemicals designed to help you fight very hard, run very fast, or freeze into a statue in order to be safe.
The question is: Where is the danger? Where is the ACTUAL threat to LIMB & LIFE? Usually, there is NONE. It is a response that is not the BEST FIT for the situation and one that is not healthy for you.
Engaging LIFE in all it’s FULLNESS is the BEST way to DIS-engage the dark clawing influence of brain-based demons, gremlins, and boogie-men or, what we refer to at the A.R.T. LAB as IUTy’s: Inaccurate, Unrealistic Thoughts.
GREAT psychotherapy can help you with this re-wiring for healthy thinking but it’s a difficult process that is not meant to be ENJOYED, though it is meant to sculpt your life into a HEALTHIER direction. This does not mean all the difficult pages of your life will be removed but rather your ability to cope with them (i.e., resilience) and even find MEANING & VALUE in them will be greatly enhanced.
No need to avoid situations you don’t prefer. No need to avoid others or label them as manipulators, gaslighters, controlling, or toxic. You have the POWER to set and honor your own boundaries without sacrificing your OWN integrity by placing de-humanizing labels on others.
You can relate without being at risk. Only YOU have power over YOUR OWN thoughts. We FIRST engineer our thoughts THEN our thoughts engineer our lives.
Embrace the DIFFICULT and your mind will RISE to the task and be STRONGER for it.
Visit the TBAL Team at: https://therapybites.ac-page.com/team
CLICK BELOW FOR DAILY LIFE-AFFIRMING, PSYCHOLOGICALLY NUTRITIOUS INFO:
(We love YOUR questions & comments on our social pages)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Y8hab2i3m3YTqO9I7Rcjg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doc.heath/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therapy_bites
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For the full show notes, visit https://therapybites.podbean.com/e/spirits
FOR OUR READERS . . . GOBBLE UP THE WHOLE THING!!! (Transcript): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1152l0mTgGWzU9JxWdpk2bGybna8YguaTmJ0to1K_9uI/edit?usp=sharing
Next Episode
E7. Ghosts, Ghouls, & Scary Faces: The Psychology of Halloween (p. 1)
October 21, 2022
•36m
FRESH from the Therapy Couch: The Psychology of Halloween (p.1): Ghouls, Ghosts, & Scary Faces
Psychotherapy Adventurers: Gamer Girl Heather, Super Bookwork Sarah, & Squirrel Girl Debbie
Go to https://TherapyBites.myshopify.com & grab some A.R.T. LAB MERCH, specially designed to help keep this episode’s message “top of mind” in your life! Don’t forget friends & family members who could use a mental boost too.
Show Summary: In this episode . . .
TherapyBites Podcast is the home of the A.R.T. LAB which investigates, explores, & educates all about the neuroscience of Accurate, Realistic Thoughts & Life Affirming Beliefs.
Today we delve into the dark psychology of spooky season; the Psychology of Halloween.
Human brains are tasty treats for Zombies but they are also fertile fields for faces. There is even a specialized file Cabinent to catalog faces: The fusiform gyrus AKA fusiform facial gyrus (FFA). The problem with this area is it tends fall prey to false positives (e.g., “I KNOW THAT FACE” when you really don’t) rather than a false negative (e.g., “I DON’T KNOW YOU” when you really do). This leads us to often make premature judgments about faces, in terms of identify recognition, but also with interpreting facial configurations.
Halloween is a GREAT time to experiment with the strange facial recognition phenomena because of all the scary faces we can try out from our local Halloween Store. There are faces of princes & princesses but also faces of ghouls and trolls and things that suck your blood and eat your brain. Acquainting ourselves with some scary faces in a way that we KNOW we are safe can help us be more RESILIENT with real life scary faces. This can help us learn a boss is not going to eat our brain because their face is scrunched up like a paper wad. It can help us DE-catastrophize a spouse’s face when the spouse is not getting their way. We can learn that the driver next to us behaving poorly and ranting & raving is best let go their way without engaging. You can train your brain that scary faces don’t mean someone is toxic, controlling, manipulating, or gas-lighting. Only YOU have the power to control your own thoughts and reactions.
Spooky season is in full swing at the A.R.T. LAB with a host of hot air-filled zombies (two actually), a “Which Way Witch”, Frankenstein, Jr., spiders webs galore, & a host of ghosts. You can practice exposing yourself to scary faces too. Go ahead and attend a local Halloween Festival, church hayride, or trick-or-treating a safe street. Just stay away from Elm Street!!!
Visit the TBAL Team at: https://therapybites.ac-page.com/team
CLICK BELOW FOR DAILY LIFE-AFFIRMING, PSYCHOLOGICALLY NUTRITIOUS INFO:
(We love YOUR questions & comments on our social pages)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Y8hab2i3m3YTqO9I7Rcjg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doc.heath/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therapy_bites
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TherapyBitesPodcast/
USEFUL LINKS ON TODAY’S TOPIC:
Where does fear originate in the brain? A coordinate-based meta-analysis of explicit and implicit fear processing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117686
Unraveling the distributed neural code of facial identity through spatiotemporal pattern analysis. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116398/
Early (N170/M170) Face-Sensitivity Despite Right Lateral Occipital Brain Damage in Acquired Prosopagnosia. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257870/
For the full show notes, visit https://therapybites.podbean.com/e/ghosts
FOR OUR READERS . . . GOBBLE UP THE WHOLE THING!!! (Transcript): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ogreCGIJOxq3goFFxxu6Fx42jHbMb0HzQZ3utMCcf2c/edit?usp=sharing
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